


Role Reversal

by amanda_jolene



Category: My Mad Fat Diary
Genre: F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, mothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 10:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1979340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amanda_jolene/pseuds/amanda_jolene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Finn needs a little comfort, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Role Reversal

He shouldn’t be upset. 

His mum is flitty like the birds in Karim’s cage in Rae’s back yard. Never in one place for too long. 

It’s been like this since he was 9 and she had a nervous breakdown because her life had become a revolving door of laundry and cooking and cleaning. She spent a month in the hoospital but never came home when she left. At the time he didn’t know what divorce meant but he knew the adults whispered it with dread shaping little lines on their foreheads and even though it was a foreign term to him, it left acidic sting on his tongue when he whispered it into the dark at night. 

She’s in and out of his life after that. Sometimes she remembers his birthday, but mostly she doesn’t. She calls on his 16th and he’s so excited she remembered that he has to slide down the wall and sit because his knees buckle at the sound of her voice. She talks about starting night classes and going on a spiritual journey to India and oh look at the time! Bye, Finny! Love you! and as the dial tone plays in his eat, he realizs she never said ‘Happy Birthday’ because she didn’t remember and she doesn’t love him. He’ll get properly drunk for the first time that night and vomit all over his Dad’s garden, hands and knees in the grass. When his dad hauls him in and cleans him up, Finn will viciously spit, “I hate that fucking bitch!” (and any love his dad still harbored fro his mum will vanish because she may treat him that way but she’s not allowed to hurt Finn). 

It’s Christmas, though, and she’s promised him since November that she’d be there. But now it’s December 24th and she’s called to say Sublin is so beautiful this time of year but oh, look at the time! Bye, Finny! Happy- and he slams the phone down so he can’t hear anymore. 

He ends up at Rae’s and she fixes him some tea and snuggles him into her arms. The tea gets cold as Morrissey croons to them, the sound of Rae’s mum’s party a backdrop to their silence.

"Want to talk about it?" 

He shakes his head and she takes his tea, setting it on her night stand before wrapping him up in both arms. She doesn’t know what’s wrong but she can feel little pieces of him trying to break off and she wants to hold him together until he’s good and ready to fall apart.

Finn hides his face in her neck and tries to calm his breathing but he’s suddenly crying, hot tears disappearing into her shirt and skin. He tries to open his mouth and explain, but all that comes out is “Why doesn’t she want me?” And then it’s all tumbling out and Rae keeps kissing his hair and hold back her own tears because it’s time for her to be strong for him. 

"She’s doesn’t know what she’s missing," she whispers in his ear. "She’s obviously mental if she can’t see that you’re a universe all by yourself." 

Rae hold him until Morrissey stops singing and the party downstairs dies. He climbs out of her window and she pulls him back for a kiss and tells him, “I hate India and I’ll never forget your birthday and I love you, Finn Nelson. Happy Christmas.” 

And it doesn’t take all the hurt away, but it’s a start.


End file.
